The present disclosure relates generally to a dialysis system. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a dialysis system including a flow regulation device for regulating the fluid flow to a dialysis device.
Hemodialysis uses a dialysis fluid to remove waste products from a patient's blood. One of the drawbacks of performing home hemodialysis (hemodialysis in a patient's home) is the need for a dedicated water treatment, which includes equipment, water connection and drainage. Installing and using those components is a difficult and cumbersome task that can require a patient's home to be modified. Nevertheless, there are benefits to daily hemodialysis treatments versus bi- or tri-weekly visits to a treatment center. In particular, a patient receiving more frequent treatments removes more toxins, waste products, and excess water more frequently, thus reducing fluctuations in blood chemistry and blood pressure, than a patient receiving less frequent but perhaps longer treatments.
Peritoneal dialysis utilizes a sterile dialysis solution, which is infused into a patient's peritoneal cavity and into contact with the patient's peritoneal membrane. Waste, toxins and excess water pass from the patient's bloodstream through the peritoneal membrane and into the used dialysate. The spent dialysate is later drained from the patient's peritoneal cavity to remove the waste, toxins and excess water from the patient. Patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis also face difficulties in terms of the volume of treatment fluid needed.
Dialysis machines require large (ranging from 20 to 200 liters per treatment) amounts of water to provide the dialysis fluid used in the machine. Further, the fluid demand of a dialysis machine is not constant and varies with the cycling of the machine. In the institutional setting, most water systems for dialysis supply a hydraulic branch with very large volumes of water. The excess water and large number of individual dialysis systems connected to the branch mitigate the variable fluid demand of each individual machine. Moreover, many water systems include large tanks capable of holding several thousand liters to provide a backup reservoir to account for changes in draw rate.
In a home setting, a single dialysis device may be connected to a single water supply without any fluid reservoir in the circuit. Thus, the device lacks the water reserve capabilities previously described for systems with large numbers of dialysis machines. Because dialysis machines do not draw a constant flow of water but rather start and stop, problems are presented. The fluid supply to the device needs to have a flow capacity that is at least as great as the maximum instantaneous draw rate of the dialysis device, which can be significantly greater than the average fluid demand of the dialysis device. Further, if the water source provides a continuous flow of fluid, a significant amount of dialysis fluid is produced but not used for dialysis, and thus is wasted.